From Frustration to Innovation: How HealthLinx Is Rewiring Chronic Care

After 35 years working as a health practitioner, the founder of HealthLinx (Lucy Swain) knew that something vital was missing in chronic disease care. Fragmented systems and disconnected data were leaving patients and practitioners in the dark. With help from Innovate Design, they turned a powerful idea into a functioning MVP, and secured a major Innovate UK grant along the way.

The Spark

Chronic illness affects millions, yet navigating care is often a confusing and inconsistent experience. Patients struggle to track what helps or hinders their symptoms, and practitioners, especially across public and private sectors, rarely collaborate. The founder, having witnessed this first-hand for decades, envisioned a better way: a platform that tracks real-world data and reveals what’s actually working.

The Journey with Innovate

Finding Innovate Design through a simple web search, the founder was drawn in by the company’s fixed pricing and reassuring NDA process. Despite limited funds, they felt confident taking the first step.

Innovate’s team helped translate the idea into something visual and tangible. Through in-depth discovery sessions, they created branding, user personas, and early prototype images that could be shared with stakeholders. When the founder later secured a £50k Innovate UK grant, Innovate Design moved swiftly into MVP development, building out both a patient-facing app and a web platform for practitioners.

Weekly check-ins ensured the founder, who wasn’t tech-savvy, could stay involved throughout the build. Innovate’s team demystified the technology and stayed patient, supportive, and flexible, even redesigning the logo to make sure it felt right.

The Big Win

The MVP for HealthLinx is now complete, providing a digital journaling tool that identifies correlations between symptoms and interventions; whether medical or lifestyle-related. It empowers users and offers clinicians real-time insights into what truly affects chronic disease symptoms.

The project gained further traction with acceptance into multiple accelerator programmes, including the Propel programme run by the Yorkshire & Humber Health Innovation Network.

What’s Next?

With API integrations, AI functionality, and a clinical trial in the pipeline, HealthLinx is gearing up for a more sophisticated platform launch. The goal? A widely available app and web system that bridges gaps in healthcare and empowers patients like never before.

Testimonial

"I had an idea in my head, but no way to bring it to life. Innovate Design helped me shape it, brand it, and build it—piece by piece. They were patient, insightful, and incredibly supportive. I’d absolutely recommend them to anyone with a dream they don’t yet know how to build."